Combined air and hand brake.



PATENTED SEPT. 6, 1904.

A. G. SANDMAN. COMBINED AIR AND HAND BRAKE.

APPLICATION IILBD APR. 1. 1896. RENEWED FEB. 13, 1904.

N0 MODEL.

INVENTOR WITNESSES:

UNITED STATES-- Patented September 6, 1 904;

PATENT OFFICE.

COMBINED AIR AND HA ND BRAKE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent .No. 769,359, dated. September 6, 1904.

Application filed April 1, 1896. Renewed February 13, 1904- Serial No. 193,469. (No model.) i I T0 at whom it may concern:

Be it known thatI, AUGUST Gr. SANDMAN, of St. Denis, Baltimore county, Stateof Maryland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Combined Air'and Hand Brake, of which the following, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification sufficiently full, clear, andaccurate as will enable car-build ers to make, apply, .and use the same.

The objects of my invention are the production of a hand-brake and an air-brake each of which may be used independently of the other and the hand-brake adapted to reinforce the air-brake and also to hold the shoes against the wheels should air leak from'the cylinder and the piston travel to a released or partly-released position.

With these objects in view the invention consists in so constructing and arranging various parts of the rigging that certain parts of it may be moved relative to other parts thereof without imparting motion to the latter.

Still further, it'consists in adapting the combined apparatus for use on a hopper-bottom car.

Figure 1 illustrates in dotted lines a plan View of ahopper-bottom car and in full lines the air and hand brake apparatus in operative position. Fig. 2 is a side view of Fig. 1 with the air-brake cylinder removed and also showing in dotted lines the downwardly-projectinghoppers on each side of the longitudinal stringers. Fig. 3 is a cross-section of Fig. 1, taken on a line between the brake-cylinder and the body-bolster and through the longitudinal stringers and brake-connecting rods; and Fig. i, a detail view ofa flexible connection between the connecting-rod and a non-floating lever.

As is well known to those skilled in the art, many hopper-bottom cars are constructed by locating two or more longitudinal stringers on the line of bufling and towing and two side sills at equaldistances from the central stringers. The downwardly-projecting hoppers occupy the area between the central stringers and side sills. This "arrangement leaves an open space directly under the stringers for the 5 passage of the air-brake pipe, brake-rods, &c.

My improvements are adapted for use on a car constructed substantially as thus described.

A is an air-brake cylinder. B B are brakecylinder' levers. O is a brake-cylinder-lever tie-rod. D and D are connecting-rods; E and E, non-floating levers each pivoted at one end in brackets F F; G G, upper brake-leverconnecting rods. These elements constitute necessary parts of the air-brake system.

P is a handbrake-connecting rod attached at one end to the ordinary chain and perpendicular hand-brake staff and at the other to a bent floating lever B. .One end of this lever B is flexibly united in any-convenient way to the lever E or rod G. A rod T also connects the lever B with one of the levers B or with the rod D. If preferred, this rod T, as shown in dotted lines, may extend between the floating lever B and the non-floating lever E.

To allow the hand-brake and air-brake to be operated each independently of the other, certain yielding or flexible elements must be introduced at convenient points between the two. I therefore show, by way of example, a flexible connection between the end of lever B and lever E or rod Gr and also a sliding connection between rod D and lever E. However, in place of the latter I may substitute a yielding or sliding connection at any other convenient point as,for illustration, between the cylinder-levers and the cylinder-lever tierod or between the end of the rod D and the cylinder-lever-B. Should the rod T extend the entire distance between the lever R and the lever E, the flexible element may be otherwise disposed. '1 have shown a chain S uniting lever R and lever E or rod Gr; but

should a rigid element take the place of the chain- S the yielding or sliding element might be located at the point of connection of lever R with rod T or otherwise located. I have shown in Fig. 4 the rod D bifurcated at the end and having a slot 1, within which travels the pivot-pin H of the lever E; but any other suitable yielding or sliding connection may be substituted.

It is to be'note d that the arrangement of the rigging is especially adapted to the construction of a hopper-bottom car. The brakecylinder occupies the open space betweenthe hopper. The rods are located beneath the central stringers in the longitudinal unobstructed space adjacent thereto and the lever B bent so that the rod T may occupy a position under the rod D or D and D.

The mode of operation is as follows: When the engineer shifts his lever and air is allowed to escape from the train brake-pipe, air is admitted to the cylinder, the piston moved, the cylinder-levers rotated, the rods D and D advanced, and the shoes brought in contact with the wheels. The free movement of these various elements is not restricted or interfered with in any way by the hand-brake device by reason of the presence of the flexible or yielding element S, for it permits the lever E to be advanced toward the left and the rods D and T and the lever B to move toward the right. After the air-brake has been fully applied it may be reinforced by the handbrake transmitting energy through the chain S and rod T to the air-brake rigging. It is also obvious by reference to the flexible or yielding connection between the lever E and the rod D or to a yielding connection at some other suitable point that the hand-brake may be applied independently of the air-brake, for as the lever B is rotated and imparts motion to the lever E the pivot H can move in the slot I and not disturb the other parts of the air-brake rigging.

While I have shown, by way of example, only one specific application and in dotted lines one modification of my invention and in the description referred to several possible specific variations or modifications, I do not consider any one or all of them as exhaustive of my invention. Changes can be made and elements substituted, and each and all I shall consider as equivalents of my specific devices when the change made or elements substituted preserves the function or functions of operation to secure the end or ends which constitute the purposes and objects of my invention.

fhat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is as follows:

1. A combined air-brake and hand-brake mechanism embracing as constituent elements non-floating levers, supports on the car-body, upper brake-lever-connecting rods, the handbrake-connecting rod, a lever B, element S, rod T, connecting-rods D, D, tie-rod C, cylinder-levers B, B, and an air-cylinder and piston; in substance as set forth.

2. The combination with air-brake rigging of hand-brake rigging embracing as main elements a rod T, lever R, flexible element S for transmitting motion to rod G, and a suitable yielding connection between the airbrake rigging and the hand-brake rigging; in substance as set forth.

3. The combination of a pair of non-floating levers, means for connecting them to the brakes, a pneumatieally-actuated system of levers connected to one of said non-floating levers by a yielding joint, a floating lever, a rod connecting its fulcrum to a member of the pneumatically-operated lever system, said floating lever having connections at one end to a hand-wheel and at its other end by a flexible connection to the non-floating lover or connecting-rod.

AUGUST G. SANDMAN.

Witnesses:

J osErH SANDMAN, JOSEPH E. DUNLAY. 

